The precautionary approach and the management of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) – critical remarks

Recruitment and commercial catches of European eel have been in decline since the late 1970s. So far, the reasons are not well understood. A range of potential natural and anthropogenic reasons have been discussed, but the relative importance of the factors is unknown. As a consequence of the decline in recruitment an urgent need for protective management measures was concluded. The main approach is to restrict the fishery on eel, in particular with reference to the precautionary approach. However, in view of the lack of knowledge on the factors responsible for the recruitment decline and by considering that many yellow and silver eel stocks in freshwaters depend on restocking by the fishery, such simplified conclusions are critically discussed. A concept for the sustainable management of eel has to include 1) research on the factors determining the population dynamics, in particular during the oceanic stages, 2) a stronger consideration of socio-economic aspects, and 3) intensified research on artificial reproduction and rearing of eel.

Recovery of the stocks of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) by spawner enhancement

The production of healthy high quality female European eel in recycle systems is proposed as a means to secure sufficient numbers of silver eel for spawning migration in order to meet the requirements of the European Commission’s proposal for a Regulation for the recovery of the stock of the European eel. Main advantages besides checks for parasites and viral diseases and avoidance of elevated levels of specific pollutants are the easily controllable numbers of spawners to be released and a reduction of labour and costs that will occur when acting along the lines of the Commission’s proposal.

Rapid identification of European (Anguilla anguilla) and North American eel (Anguilla rostrata) by polymerase chain reaction.

A rapid and cost effective DNA test is described to identify European eel (Anguilla anguilla) and North American eel (Anguilla rostrata). By means of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique parts of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene are amplified with species specific primers which are designed to produce PCR fragments of different characteristic sizes for European and American eel. The size differences can easily be made visible by agarose gel electrophoresis

WEFTA-Laborvergleichsuntersuchungen zur pH-Bestimmung in Fischerei-Erzeugnissen - Eine gemeinsame Aktion der Western European Fish Technologists' Association

12 samples (6 original samples and 6 diluted samples) were analysed by 14 WEFTA laboratories for their pH values in an inter-laboratory comparison exercise. As a result it can be stated that the majority of participating laboratories could determine the pH values very exactly. The pH values obtained are ranging only little around the calculated mean (less than 0.1 pH unit). It could also be demonstrated that the participating institutes could analyse both, pH values in fishery products and aqueous salt solutions. However, also in this exercise a number of outliers and deviating values have been detected. Therefore it is of utmost importance to calibrate the pH electrodes in regular intervals and to maintain them carefully. Intra-laboratory comparison measurements are recommended to detect weak points.

32. Jahretagung der West European Fish Technologists Association

Die West European Fish Technologists Association (WEFTA, gegründet 1970) ist ein Zusammenschluß von Europäischen Insti-tuten, die auf dem Gebiet Fischerei, Fischqualität und -verarbeitung arbeiten und forschen. Ziele der WEFTA ist der Informa-tionsaustausch zwischen Wissenschaftlern und Fischindustrie sowie die Ausweitung und Verbesserung der Zusammenarbeitunterschiedlicher Interessengruppen und Instituten in Projekten.

31. Jahrestagung der "West European Fish Technologit´s Association" in Espoo, Finnland

Vom 27.-31. Mai 2001 fand in Espoo, Finnland, die 31. Jahrestagung der WEFTA (West European FishTechnologist’s Association) statt. 75 Teilnehmer aus15 europäischen Ländern, der FAO und der Europäischen Kommission sowie aus den USA und Kanadawaren der Einladung des VTT Biotechnology, eines großen finnischen Forschungsinstituts auf dem Gebiete der Biotechnologie und biologischer Materialien, zu dieser Tagung gefolgt. Die Durchführung in einemKongresszentrum in Espoo, nahe der finnische Hauptstadt Helsinki direkt am Bottnischen Meerbusen gelegen, ermöglichte einen straffen organisatorischen Ablauf und die Einhaltung des Zeitplanes der mit 41 Vorträgen und 18 Postern recht umfangreichen Veranstaltung, die in 7 Themenkomplexe gegliedert war. Nachfolgend werden wesentliche Ergebnisse der einzelnen Beiträge zusammengefasst

28. Jahrestagung der "West European Fish Technologists´ Association" in Tromsø, Norwegen

In der 1970 gegründeten West European Fish Technologists’ Association (WEFTA) arbeiten zahlreiche europäische Institute, die sich mit Fischen als Lebensmittel bzw. Fischtechnologie befassen, zusammen. Sie wurde seinerzeit ins Leben gerufen, um jüngeren Wissenschaftlern zu ermöglichen, ihre Ergebnisse und Probleme einem größeren fachkundigen Publikum vorzustellen gegebenenfalls weiter weisende Impulse zu erhalten. In ihr wird aber auch der Sachverstand der Institute zusammengeführt, was zu zahlreichen bi- und multilateralen Absprachen geführt hat, aus denen EU-finanzierte Forschungsvorhaben entstanden sind. Die Jahrestagungen der WEFTA sind deshalb gute Gelegenheiten, bei denen Wissenschaftler und Technologen aus verschiedenen Ländern ihre Kenntnisse und Informationen austauschen können, um globale und öffentliche Fragestellungen zu diskutieren und durch gemeinsame Forschungsvorhaben zu klären.

27. Jahrestagung der WEFTA (Western European Fish Technologists’ Association)

Die 27. Jahrestagung der WEFTA fand vom 20.-22.10.1997 in Madrid, Spanien, statt. Organisiert wurde diese WEFTA-Tagung von J. Boderias und den Mitarbeitern des Instituto des Frio in Madrid. Das Interesse an dieser WEFTA-Tagung war besonders groß, dies zeigte sich insbesondere an der Anzahl der angemeldeten Vorträge und Poster sowie an den ca. 130 gemeldeten Teilnehmern aus 16 WEFTA - Mitgliedstaaten und Gästen aus den USA, Argentinien, Israel, Lettland, Mexiko und Venezuela.

26. Jahrestagung der WEFTA (Western European Fish Technologists´ Association) in Gdynia, Polen

Die 26. Jahrestagung der WEFTA fand vom 22. bis 26. September 1996 erstmalig in Polen statt. Gastgeber war P. Bykowski vom Institut für Seefischerei (MIR) in Gdynia, das im Jahre 1996 sein 75jähriges Jubiläum feiern konnte . Die Tagung wurde von etwa 70 Delegierten aus den 16 WEFTA Mitgliedsstaaten und Gästen aus den USA, Rußland, Israel und Litauen besucht. Die Konferenz wurde von Z. Polanski, dem Direktor des Institutes und von M. Brzeski, dem Zweiten Bürgermeister der Stadt Gdynia eröffnet. In 10 Vortragssektionen und einer Postersektion wurden den Teilnehmern insgesamt 38 Vorträge und 24 Poster geboten.

International Seafood Conference 25. Jahrestagung der WEFTA (West European Fish Technologists' Association)

The 25th annual meeting of WEFTA was held in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, in November 1995 as an "International Seafood Conference". In 12 sessions 40 oral presentations and 60 posters were presented. The topics included among others: Quality assurance, consumer demands and behaviour, processing, packaging, distribution, nutrition, storage, analytical methodology. The conference was attended by 210 participants from 33 countries.

Das europäisches Netzwerk zur Koordination der Altersbestimmung bei Fischen: European Fish Ageing Network (EFAN)

Financial support is going to be applied for from the European Commission in order to establish the European Fish Ageing Network (EFAN). The project, which was planned and initiated from Norway (Floedevigen) is supposed to be a concerted action from 14 European Countries involving about 35 institutions. The primary aim of the network is to coordinate the research in age reading, especially the improvement of data bases for reference material, the transformation of research (e.g. daily ring formation in otoliths) to each interested reader. Moreover, the applied financial support is supposed to be preliminary spent for travel of researcher and technicians to other institutes where the same fish species are aged. Reference material is supposed to be sent to the institutes for check-reading. Specific workshops will be held in cases where heterogeneous results occur from check-reading the reference material.

Falling through the cracks: are European directives and international conventions the panacea for freshwater nature conservation?

There are many ways of practising freshwater nature conservation: from strict legislative protection of individual species considered rare or threatened to protecting whole lakes or long stretches of rivers; from practical conservation management at a local scale to integrated catchment management at the river basin scale; and from the encouragement of better habitat management through codes of good practice to statutory control of pollution or abstraction. Whatever the mechanism, an essential pre-requisite is a way of choosing where to put the effort, especially when resources for nature conservation are severely limited. The aim of this article is to review the contribution from four specific international measures to the task of assigning priorities for conservation. The 1990s saw the introduction of two European directives (the Habitats Directive (HD) and the Water Framework Directive (WFD)) and one international convention (the Biodiversity Convention (CBD)) each with the potential for influencing, to a greater or lesser extent, the conservation of freshwater habitats and species. This article also discusses a much older convention – the Ramsar Convention – adopted in 1971 specifically to help tackle the conservation and management of wetlands and aquatic ecosystems. Although the authors have focused mainly on the UK, the subject is relevant to other parts of Europe and beyond. The article explores the degree to which these measures help in identifying the most important fresh waters for conservation, and asks whether or not they present the right conservation message to a wide audience.

The family of chironomids or midges - Chironomidae. Keys to larvae and pupae [Translation from: Guide to the freshwater invertebrates of the European area of the USSR (Plankton and benthos) (ed. L. A. Kutikova and Ya. I. Starobogatov), p.371-431. Leningrad, Gidrometeoizdat, 1977]

The translation of this section of the larger publication ”Opredelitel' presnovodnykh bespozvonochnykh evropeiskoi chasti SSSR. (Plankton i bentos)” provides identification keys to the larvae and pupae of chironomids that occur in the Soviet Union. The morphology of the larvae of Chironomidae is described in the introductory part.